It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Donnie, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Donnie Darko's themes include love, sacrifice, existentialism and time travel. The movie's plot presents paradoxes never fully explained, and multiple interpretations of the film's storyline exist. There are some parallels with The Last Temptation of Christ.

Cast

• Jake Gyllenhaal as Donald J. "Donnie" Darko
• Holmes Osborne as Eddie Darko
• Maggie Gyllenhaal as Elizabeth Darko
• Daveigh Chase as Samantha Darko
• Mary McDonnell as Rose Darko
• James Duval as Frank
• Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham
• Beth Grant as Kitty Farmer
• Jena Malone as Gretchen Ross
• Noah Wyle as Kenneth Monnitoff
• Drew Barrymore as Karen Pomeroy
• Katharine Ross as Dr. Lillian Thurman
• Patience Cleveland as Roberta Sparrow (a.k.a. Grandma Death)

Plot

The film is set in 1988, in Middlesex, Virginia during the 1988 presidential election campaign. After the viewer is introduced to the Darko family, Donnie Darko is awoken in the night from his sleep on October 2 and led out of his house by a disembodied voice, where he is confronted by a demonic man-sized rabbit named Frank. Frank tells him that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Donnie wakes up the next morning on a golf course and sees 28:06:42:12 written on his arm. He returns home to discover that a jet engine has inexplicably fallen onto his house, and has crushed his bedroom.

The next day Donnie goes to his (private) school. His English class is in the middle of a discussion on Graham Greene's short story "The Destructors", when a new girl named Gretchen walks in late and asks where she should sit. Donnie's English teacher Ms. Pomeroy strangely instructs Gretchen to "sit next to the boy you think is the cutest." After a few moments Gretchen eyes Donnie and the teacher tells the girl sitting next to him to move.

That night Frank appears to Donnie and tells him to flood the school. Donnie obeys. While waiting for the school bus with his friends the next morning Donnie hears that school has been cancelled because of the flood. Meanwhile, the police and school officials are baffled because aside from the flooding due to the broken water main, the solid-bronze school mascot, the mongrel, has an axe stuck into its head and the phrase they made me do it (in Frank's handwriting) has been scrawled on the pavement. While walking home Donnie spots Gretchen being harassed by the two school bullies and she asks Donnie to walk her home; Donnie then awkwardly asks her to "go" with him. She agrees.

Some time later Frank asks Donnie if he believes in time travel. Donnie then questions his science teacher about the idea, and the teacher gives him The Philosophy of Time Travel, a book written by a Roberta Sparrow, the 101 year-old woman nicknamed "Grandma Death" who lives by herself in a decrepit house and spends all her time standing in the middle of the road and checking her mailbox.

Donnie soon finds the wallet of Jim Cunningham on his way to school. Cunningham is a successful motivational speaker whose methods Donnie had loudly denounced in front of a microphone at a school assembly. Donnie and Gretchen then go on a date to a movie theater; Gretchen falls asleep in the empty theater and Frank appears. After being asked by Donnie to remove his rabbit mask, Frank reveals a human face with an apparent bullet hole in his right eye, and then commands Donnie to "burn it to the ground" -- implying the recently discovered home address of Jim Cunningham. Donnie obeys again. The arriving firemen soon discover a secret room filled with pedophilic material. As a result Ms. Kitty Farmer, the school's phys ed/social studies teacher and fervent believer in Cunningham's methods, decides to defend Cunningham. So Ms. Farmer consequently asks Donnie's mother to chaperone the school dance-group (of which their daughters are members) to California to perform on Star Search. Meanwhile, (rabbit) Frank has told Donnie to write to Grandma Death about his views on her book.

With both of their parents out of town and his older sister Elizabeth just accepted into Harvard, Donnie and his sister throw a Halloween party. During the (large) party, Elizabeth's (human) boyfriend Frank decides to drive off in his red Trans Am to pick up more beer.

After a brief romantic interlude Donnie takes Gretchen to the basement of Grandma Death's house to see her "cellar door"; there they come upon the two school bullies searching for the old lady's known gem collection. A struggle ensues between Gretchen, Donnie, and the two other kids, and Gretchen is thrown out onto the road. The viewer then sees Roberta Sparrow standing in the middle of the same road -- reading Donnie's letter -- when (human) Frank comes driving around the corner in his red Trans Am. He swerves to avoid the old lady and accidentally runs over Gretchen, killing her. Donnie runs to her and sees that she is dead. Willing to do what needs to be done to save Gretchen, he shoots Frank in the eye, killing him.

Donnie then takes the dead Gretchen in his arms and eventually drives to the hilltop where the predicted storm is gathering strength. The plane carrying his mother and sister back from California at this moment passes through the "timestorm," and one of its engines tumbles out of the sky after being ripped off the wing; this engine is then thrust back through the open time-portal. Donnie himself now moves back in time, all the way back to his bedroom on October 2. Laughing, he lies down to fall asleep as the engine falls through the roof and kills him.

Afterwards, we see all the main characters alive and are led to believe that they (maybe some, maybe all) experience varying memories about certain events from the closed and future Tangent Universe (e.g. Gretchen and Donnie's mother wave to each other, even though they have now never met).

Director's cut

A director's cut of the movie debuted on May 29, 2004 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle International Film Festival, and was released in New York and Los Angeles on July 23, 2004. This new cut contains twenty minutes of extra footage, and most significantly includes excerpts from the book The Philosophy of Time Travel. The soundtrack is altered as well. The director's cut DVD, released on February 15, 2005, included the new footage and more soundtrack changes, as well as some additional features exclusive to the two-DVD set: excerpts from the storyboard, a 52-minute production diary, "#1 fan video," a "cult following" video interviewing British fans, and the new director's cut cinematic trailer. The director's cut DVD was released as a giveaway with copies of the British Sunday Times newspaper on February 19, 2006.

Differences

In the director's cut:

• The opening-scene song was changed from Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" to INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart". The INXS song was the intended original number. "The Killing Moon" later replaces "Under the Milky Way" by The Church during the party scene. "Under The Milky Way" can be heard in the car scene with Donnie and his father, played on the radio.
• While watching the football game, Donnie simply follows an opaque sphere; the sphere does not form a finger and then beckon him, as in the original (many thought the beckoning finger was out of place and that the sphere better suits the film's atmosphere).
• Donnie's psychiatrist tells Donnie that his pills are placebos and informs him that he is an agnostic, and not an atheist as Donnie thought.
• The Holiday Inn scene is longer.
• Several scenes in Ms. Pomeroy's classroom are re-inserted: Donnie reading his own poetry, the banning of Graham Greene's "The Destructors" and its replacement with Watership Down, and the class later watching the animated adaptation of Watership Down.
• Frank's apology in the theater during the The Evil Dead is cut.
• Karen Pomeroy's firing scene is shortened, while the scene in which Donnie asks her about the words "cellar door" is longer and contains almost entirely different dialogue.
• Various transition scenes show chapter excerpts from Roberta Sparrow's book (giving the viewer a better understanding of the movie time-travel "rules.") Some fans and critics feel that the inclusion of the book excerpts gives away too much.[1]
• There is more of Donnie and Gretchen, including an arcade scene with Donnie playing the race-car game Outrun. In the game the car is red, as is human Frank's car.
• A new scene is added with Donnie's mom and dad having dinner, discussing Donnie.
• A scene is added showing Donnie and Elizabeth carving pumpkins. Donnie carves his into the shape of Frank's mask.
• When Donnie's face enters the sphere at the Halloween party, the shot of his eyes bulging is completely removed.
• A montage of fireworks and shots from Outrun video game are superimposed over the scenes during Donnie's final narration at the end of the film.
• The scene in which Frank first wakes up Donnie is longer.
• Donnie's perspective of certain events appear as images within his own eye. For example, we first see the image of Frank's head flash in Donnie's pupil as Frank wakes him up, and there is a shot of fire in Donnie's eyes before Frank tells him to burn Cunningham's house down (replacing a full-screen shot of Cunningham's house on fire).

Interpretations

"Straight" interpretation

After experiencing the Tangent Universe and seeing the paths that others will follow, Donnie sacrifices himself so that Gretchen, his mother, his sister and Frank may live. A simple explanation of the movie has Donnie making sure -- with rabbit Frank's guidance -- that the chain of events causing the engine to go through the portal do indeed occur.

Director's interpretation

Director Richard Kelly does not deny personal interpretations of the story but has expressed his own theories through the extra commentary on the two DVDs, his own (fictional) book the Philosophy of Time Travel, and in various other interviews.

According to Kelly and his Philosophy of Time Travel, at midnight on October 2 a Tangent Universe spins off the Primary Universe at the moment when Donnie is called out by Frank for the first time, immediately before the appearance of the Artifact, the errant jet engine. This has started a causal loop. Tangent Universes are inherently unstable and will collapse in less than six weeks, taking the Primary Universe with it if not closed off (i.e. corrected). Closing the Tangent Universe is the duty of the Living Receiver, Donnie, who wields certain supernatural powers that can help him in this task.

Those who have died/will die within the Tangent Universe are the Manipulated Dead (Frank and Gretchen). They are also given certain -- but varying -- powers in that they subtly understand what is happening and have the ability to contact and influence the Living Receiver via the Fourth Dimensional Construct (water). All others within the orbit of the Living Receiver are the Manipulated Living (Ms. Pomeroy, Mr. Monnitoff), subconsciously drawn to push him towards his destiny to close the Tangent Universe and, according to the Philosophy of Time Travel, die by the Artifact.

There are two "Franks" in the story: the living boyfriend of Donnie's sister Elizabeth, and the (same?) dead Frank who appears to Donnie as a premonition from the future in the disturbing rabbit suit. [The second Frank is dead (or undead), for at the end of the film he is killed by Donnie]. Dead Frank, as the most powerful of the Manipulated Dead, knows that Donnie is the only person who can close off the Tangent Universe, and has the ability to travel through time in order to guide him. If Donnie dies on October 2, or if Donnie cannot complete his quest, the world is doomed, for the paradoxical causal loop (caused by the portal) will tear the Primary Universe apart.

Other possibilities

The film carefully leaves open the possibility that the entire alternate-universe sequence of events is Donnie's hallucination, fantasy, or dream. Some of the backstory is explained on the official Donnie Darko website. For example, it tells how Donnie was institutionalized before the events of the movie, and elaborates on the fates of some of the characters in the corrected Primary Universe after Donnie's death. Kelly's commentary also leaves open the possibility that Frank may be a representative ("vessel") of God, or that the entire Tangent-Universe dilemma is in fact being caused by an advanced future society dangerously experimenting with time travel.

If we believe that undead/dead Frank is the voice of God, this means that human Frank and dead Frank are not the same person at all; instead God's vessel has been chosen to appear in the form of the dead Frank. With this interpretation, when dead Frank tells Donnie "I'm so sorry" in the movie theater, he is not referring to the death of Gretchen, but to the fact that Donnie must give up his own life.^{citation needed]}

Production

The movie was shot in 28 days, on a budget of $4.5 million US dollars. It almost went straight to DVD, but was saved by financial backing from production company Flower Films.^[1]

The story takes place in Middlesex, Virginia, but was filmed in California. The scenes at Donnie's school were filmed in part in Loyola High School, a prominent Catholic institution located in Los Angeles, California and the Aero Theatre where Donnie and Gretchen watch a double feature is a real movie theater in Santa Monica, California.

Music

Main article: Donnie Darko soundtrack

Reception

Publicly screened for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival, critic Andy Bailey billed Donnie Darko as a "Sundance surprise" that "isn't spoiled by the Hollywood forces that helped birth it."^[2]

Although critically acclaimed, Donnie Darko debuted in U.S. theaters in October of 2001 to only 58 screens nationwide. Nationwide, the film grossed $110,494 in its opening weekend. By the time the film closed in U.S. theaters on April 11, 2002, Darko had grossed $517,375. The release of Donnie Darko almost immediately after the September 11th attacks, especially with the fact that a jet engine crashes into Donnie's house, severely limited the success of the movie in theaters. This fact alone is responsible for the small number of debut screens.^[3][4]

Despite its initial poor showing at the box office, the film has since attracted a huge cult follwing and devoted fan base. Donnie Darko was originally released on DVD in March 2002. During this time, the Pioneer Theatre in New York City's East Village began midnight screenings that continued for 28 consecutive months. In the United Kingdom, it sold moderately well on DVD before being reissued in a budget edition (with no director's commentary or other extras), where it reached #1 in the DVD sales chart. Soon after, composer Michael Andrews found his piano-driven cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World" at the top of the UK music charts, sung by Gary Jules.

Strong DVD sales led Newmarket Films to release a "Directors Cut" on DVD in 2005. Bob Berney, President of Newmarket Films described Darko as "a runaway hit on DVD," citing U.S. DVD sales of more than $10 million.^[5]

Awards and nominations

2001 — Richard Kelly won with Donnie Darko for "Best Screenplay" at the Catalonian International Film Festival and at the San Diego Film Critics Society. Donnie Darko also won the "Audience Award" for Best Feature at the Sweden Fantastic Film Festival. The film was nominated for "Best Film" at the Catalonian International Film Festival and for the "Grand Jury Prize" at the Sundance Film Festival.

2002 — Donnie Darko won the "Special Award" at the Young Filmmakers Showcase at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The movie also won the "Silver Scream Award" at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival. In 2002 Kelly was nominated for "Best First Feature" and "Best First Screenplay" with Donnie Darko, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal being nominated for "Best Male Lead" at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film was also nominated for the "Best Breakthrough Film" at the Online Film Critics Society Awards.

2003 — Jake Gyllenhaal won for "Best Actor" and Richard Kelly for "Best Original Screenplay" for Donnie Darko at the Chlotrudis Awards, where Kelly was also nominated for "Best Director" and "Best Movie."

2005 — Donnie Darko ranked in top five films on My Favourite Film, an Australian poll conducted by the ABC.^[6]

2006 — Donnie Darko ranked ninth in FilmFour's 50 Films To See Before You Die.^[7]

Trivia

• The thematically-fitting Halloween double feature that Donnie and Gretchen watch is The Evil Dead and The Last Temptation of Christ.

• Kelly’s DVD commentary reveals that the man in the red jogging suit is an FAA agent monitoring the family members.

• Elizabeth Darko, Donnie's sister, is played by Jake Gyllenhaal's real sister Maggie Gyllenhaal.

• Actual published books appearing in the film include Stephen King's It read by Mrs. Rose Darko, Stephen King's The Tommyknockers read by Mr. Eddie Darko (though the cover of the hard backed edition had been lost/taken during shooting), Graham Greene's "The Destructors" assigned by Ms. Pomeroy, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, and (in the director's cut) Watership Down by Richard Adams.

• The "famous linguist" who said cellar door were the most beautiful words in the English language was in fact J.R.R. Tolkien, though Richard Kelly in the commentary says it is Edgar Allan Poe. In any case, Ms. Pomeroy is mistaken — Tolkien was a philoligist, not a linguist.

• Richard Kelly has stated that the classroom scene where Kitty Farmer makes the students go through Cunningham's fear/love exercise is based on a similar exercise Kelly remembers from his own school days.

• Graham Greene was born on October 2, the same night on which Donnie sees Frank for the first time.

• The wallpaper on the Darko's staircase (seen when Donnie is following the sphere) is in the pattern of rabbit Frank.

• The poster on Donnie's bedroom wall is M.C. Escher's "Eye".

• In the commentary, Kelly explains that he intentionally uses a modern Blockbuster Video card on the key chain for Blockbuster endorsement purposes. Hence the "modern" card in the film.

• While Donnie is riding his bicycle home in the opening sequence, he passes a red Trans Am at the moment when the lyrics of the song in the theatrical version are "I know it must be the killing time." In the director's cut, the lyrics at this moment are "..Two worlds collided and they could never tear us apart..."

• The "cured" boy in the Cunning Visions tape also appears at the school assembly; he asks Cunningham "how can I learn to fight?". He is also shown throwing leaves into the fan during the "autumn angel" talent show routine.

• The "they made me do it" graffitti on the school plaza is in the same handwriting as human Frank's message on the refrigerator dry-erase board at the Halloween party: "Frank was here, went to get BEER."

• Cellar door is an anagram of the word "celar dolor" a Spanish word meaning to "watch out for pain/sorrow"

• The spiral on the jet engine is based around the Fibonacci series of numbers (Fn= F(n-1) +F(n-2)). This series of numbers has also been used to study rabbit mating patterns.^{citation needed]}

• The song Mad World includes the lyrics: "The dreams in which I'm dying / are the best I've ever had" is used in the movie.

Related products

• The Donnie Darko Book (ISBN 0-571-22124-6) was released in 2003. Written by Richard Kelly and introduced by Jake Gyllenhaal, the 192 page book explained some of the details for the film.
• NECA released a six inch (15 cm) figure of Frank the Bunny, and later, a foot (30 cm) tall 'talking' version of the same figure.

References

External links

• DonnieDarko.com - official film website, with the director's cut trailer
• Donnie Darko at the Internet Movie Database
• Donnie Darko at Rotten Tomatoes
• Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut at Rotten Tomatoes
• Extensive review by Future Movies
• Extensive analysis of the film by Lawrence Person
• Cellar Door: The Best Donnie Darko Fansite